For the past 19 years, I have spent my summers on the baseball diamond umpiring. I have umpired everything from little league to college. I have attended the Harry Wendelstedt umpire school twice. This blog will be a combination of stories and lessons I have learned along the way.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Quick Question

Last week I had two boys 11 games. In those games, the pitchers were trying curve balls. Can any coaches out there who might be reading this please tell me why a 11 year old (10 in some cases) need to be throwing curve balls.

2 comments:

I've been coaching 12, 13 and 14 year olds for seven years now. I tell my pitchers "when you are old enough to shave, you can start thinking about throwing a curve ball". They always think that's funny.

Instead of throwing a curve, I teach all my pitchers to throw a 2 seam fastball, and a straight change. Once they see how much movement they can get on these two pitches (when thrown properly), most forget about throwing the curve.

When I played, that is how I was taught. I didn't thrown anything besides a fastball, changeup and knuckleball until I was in high school. I hate it when I see these young kids destroying their arms because the coaches are idiots.